Germany's Federal Cartel Office will ban Facebook from collecting user data through third parties providers, Bild am Sonntag reports without citing sources. Third parties providers include Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, game apps and website operators.
The Cartel Office wants to set Facebook a deadline to meet the requirements, according to the report. The authority did not want to comment on the process. A Facebook spokeswoman said that the company continues to oppose the decision of the Cartel Office.
The authority believes that the US technology giant is abusing its dominant position in the market. It had also informed Facebook that it has a dominant position in the market and there are problems with how it collects information on users of the social network, director of the Bundeskartellamt Andreas Mundt said in an interview with the Rheinischen Post. The regulator informed Facebook of the preliminary conclusions of its investigation before the holidays, he said.
